


Red Velvet

by littlemaple



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Attempt at Humor, Awkward Conversations, Barista Lance (Voltron), M/M, Mutual Pining, They are Both Dorks, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-07 13:18:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11624343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlemaple/pseuds/littlemaple
Summary: Keith is back in town after two years, and he is happy to see his favorite coffee shop is exactly the same as he remembers it. Well… almost the same.





	Red Velvet

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone! Here I am again with another klance fic!   
> This time, it is a birthday gift for a dear friend. I hope you like it! <3
> 
> Also, this was based off a prompt by authorkurikuri @ tumblr. the prompt was "sure, i used to be a regular, but i literally haven’t been to this coffee shop in two years. how do you still remember my order??"
> 
> Comments are always welcome!

**First layer**

Keith stopped his bike in front of the café and a small smile escaped his lips. He took off his helmet and watched the movement inside through the front glass windows. Everything was still as colorful and cozy as he remembered in the Altea Café, which made him feel a bit nostalgic.

It felt a bit weird to be back in town, but he tried not to think about it. So he climbed off his bike and entered the café. A familiar bell rang when he walked in, and he walked towards the counter; he always liked to sit on the farthest stool, from which he could watch his bike outside, the television and also the cute barista who worked there at the time, all without having to turn his head too much.

He walked straight to the stool he always used to take, glad it was empty, and waited. The barista was busy talking to a group of girls and the small waiter collecting cups and plates from a table didn’t seem to have noticed him. But Keith didn’t mind. There was a soft, pop song playing on the background, and the place was warm and smelled of pastries and coffee. He smiled to himself as he looked at the tables, chairs, wall decor and mugs. Everything was color coded. The blue tables had blue chairs, blue napkins and coffee was served in blue mugs, and the same happened for the other colors. Even the food was color coded. It was really pretty and unique, really.

And as Keith watched this, he overheard the girls and the barista talking.

“Wait, so how do you say the name again?”

“Alt _ea_.” the barista said, laughing.

“Oh… I thought it was, you know… _Al_ tea.”

“Yeah, like… all… tea…”

The barista laughed again and Keith turned to look at him. He remembered that voice.

“Well, yeah, that was the intention, you know. We do serve all kinds of tea.” he winked and the girls chuckled, “I helped the owner come up with this name.”

“Really? That’s so cool…”

“Wait… if it’s _all tea_ … why do you serve coffee as well?”

“Altea is very inclusive. Everyone is welcome here. Even coffee.” the barista winked again, smiling.

Keith remembered him. It was the same barista whom he thought was cute. He hadn’t changed much in two years. His hair was shorter and his features were a bit more mature than Keith remembered, but he was still, if not more, as cute as Keith remembered.

“Now, ladies, if you excuse me, I need to go back to work.” the barista said, “Come back soon so we can talk more.”

The girls nodded and chuckled and left. The barista then turned to Keith, and his eyebrows were raised in surprise when their eyes met.

“So that’s why everything is color coded?” Keith asked before the barista could say something and looked away, not knowing if he should hold their eye contact for longer.

“Sorry?” the barista said, confused.

“You said that ‘Altea is very inclusive’. Is that why the whole place is color coded with the proud flag colors?” Keith asked. He had always been curious about that, but never got around to asking.

The barista raised his eyebrows once again, then laughed.

“What? No… We only have _five_ colors. Not six. There’s nothing orange here. I mean, except for the actual pride flag.” the barista answered, pointing to a small rainbow flag behind the counter.

“So why…”

“Because of the TV show? _The planet of lions_? It’s the theme of the café? C’mon, Altea is the name of the planet?” the barista said, but Keith still had no idea what he was talking about. He then pointed to the TV on the corner, “We’re always showing the episodes. The owner, Shiro, he’s a huge fan. So he made this place. Last year, the actress that plays Allura, the princess of the show, came here and stuff.” he pointed to a framed pictured on the wall. Keith saw the staff reunited for the picture, each one wearing aprons with different colors. Right in the middle stood a beautiful black woman, the only one without an apron, smiling. The picture was signed, but Keith couldn’t read what it said. “Shiro was so happy, it was cute. After that we became even more popular, especially when there’s new episodes releases.”

“Oh… I’ve never seen this show.” Keith said then.

“You should! It’s really good.” the barista smiled, and Keith nodded because it felt like he should.

“Anyway! Keith!” he said with a surprised smile and a faint blush on his cheeks, and Keith didn’t know what to think of it.

He didn’t remember the barista’s name.

“Yeah?” Keith answered awkwardly.

“Wow. It’s been so long since you came here! How are you?! Wait. First, let me guess… you will want a… red eye coffee, no sugar! And a red velvet cake!” the barista smiled.

He was wearing a blue apron with a small tag with his name on it. _Lance_.

Keith remembered going to the café regularly, at least once a week, and he remembered always ordering the same thing, but he also remembered he hardly ever spoken with Lance.

He’d sit at his usual stool, eat his cake and watch Lance as he worked, and from time to time they would talk about how college was going, but Keith would let the conversation die quickly because talking about college made him uncomfortable, and it would be left at that.

Besides, Lance was always flirting with lots of interesting-looking people. Keith never thought Lance would care enough to remember who _he_ was.

“Oh, yes, I’d like that…” Keith answered, and as Lance winked and grabbed a red cup to make the coffee, Keith added, “How do you remember my order?”

“Well, you were a regular here. I always remember the regulars.” Lance replied simply.

“Yes, but I haven’t came here in…”

“Two years, yeah.” Lance completed. Something in his serious expression made Keith blush. “I always remember the regulars.” Lance repeated.

He placed the cup of coffee in front of Keith and cut a slice of cake.

“Where have you been all this time?” Lance asked casually.

“Around.” Keith replied with a shrug.

“Oh. Cool.” Lance said quietly, and then there was a brief silence between them.

Keith heard the bell ring and though their conversation would die there, but as Lance handed him his slice of cake, he smiled and said,

“Glad to have you back, Keith. In town, I mean.”

“Oh, yeah. Thanks?” Keith nodded back, unsure. He wasn’t sure if _he_ was glad to be back, but he was trying not to overthink that.

He needed to take over his family shop, and he wasn’t sure that was what he wanted to do with his life, but then again… he wasn’t sure of a lot of things.

With a sigh, he took a forkful of his cake… and grimaced.

“Uh…” he said to himself, but Lance, who was preparing another cup of coffee a few steps from there, came towards him,

“Something wrong?”

“Oh, nothing’s wrong. It’s just… the cake is different?” Keith commented, taking another forkful of cake and looking at it.

“Different how? Is it bad?” Lance asked, worried.

“No, no, it’s really good. It’s just different from what I remember.” Keith explained, taking a second bite. It was indeed very good. It was in fact better than what he remembered, but he was craving that taste - the buttery sweet taste he remembered so well.

“Oh, right. Well, ever since Hunk started working here, he changed some recipes.” Lance explained with a grin, “Hunk’s a great cook, you know? He came up with some new recipes for us too, like the blueberry cheesecake. It’s so good…! Anyway, our red velvet cake was made with this cheap buttercream before, but Hunk hates that, so he changed the filling for this cream cheese and white chocolate ganache thing…and it’s selling much more now.”

Keith nodded.

“I get it. It’s much better now.”

“You don’t look too happy about it? Is everything alright?”

Keith remembered how he ate that cake after his first day of school at the Garrison University, a good four years back. He was anxious about classes, about his future, and there was something in eating that industrially sweet cake and watching Lance serve cup after cup of coffee that made Keith think he’d be alright after all. So he came back again and again. Now that he had to come back to town, he was kind of looking for that feeling again.

He wasn’t going to say any of that, though.

So he shrugged.

“Yeah, the cake is really good. The coffee is good too.”

“Okay, good. Just call me if you need something else.” Lance said with a quick wink and walked to the other side of the counter, to prepare the order the waiter (waitress? Keith wasn’t sure; he had seen the waiter was using a green apron, but he couldn’t read the name tag on it) gave him.

So Keith focused on eating his cake, making faces to it from time to time, and watching Lance working, looking away from time to time so it wouldn’t look like he was staring.

 

**Filling**

  
“Hunk, I need your help. Can you come over?”

“ _Lance, if it has something to do with another Tinder date, I swear I’ll…_ ”

“No, it’s about Keith.”

“ _Oh, god, so it’s worse…_ ”

“Shut up. Will you come or not?”

“ _Yeah, yeah, coming_.”

Lance ended the call and sighed to the mess on his kitchen table. There were cake crumbs and cake pans and dirty bowls and empty packages there, but his masterpiece was completed and he was very proud of it. Now all he needed was Hunk’s help to assemble it - Lance wanted the cake to at least look good.

He didn’t know Keith well, despite all his tries he never went too far, but he knew him enough to know that everything wasn’t as fine as he wanted people to think. And Lance didn’t mind if Keith wasn’t going to tell him the reason. All he wanted was to make Keith at least a little happier, even if that meant baking a cake for him.

When Hunk arrived half hour later, Lance led him to the kitchen and showed him what he had done.

“Wow. You baked a cake for him? Why? Didn’t he like mine?” Hunk asked, a bit confused and a bit hurt.

“Nah, that’s not it, he said he liked your cake, but that he liked how it was before, so I thought… I’d make one like that to him?” Lance shrugged, trying to look cool about it.

Hunk rolled his eyes,

“Lance, he has been gone for two years. You still have a crush on him?”

“No…” Lance answered as he scratched the back of his neck, his cheeks flushed.

“Oh, yes you do.” Hunk sighed, “Alright. Fine. So he likes that disgusting buttercream we used before?” Lance nodded, amused with Hunk’s disgusted expression.

“I need your help to put the layers together. I made the cake and I got the buttercream in the store. I whipped it a bit and now it looks super smooth.” Lance said proudly.

“Oh, wow. Your cake looks so good…” Hunk said, surprised, as he looked at the cake on the table. Lance tried not to be offended at _how_ surprised he was.

“I know, right? It looks delicious.”

“Did you actually _make_ this? Or did you use cake mix?” he asked, squinting his eyes.

“ _Of course_ I used cake mix,” Lance snorted, “What am I, an animal?”

“ _Excuse me_?” Hunk gasped.

Lance stopped him before he could start arguing about how to properly make a cake,

“Please help me put everything together. You do it super well, I want it to look pretty, at least. I mean, I tried the buttercream out and it’s… it’s _bad_.” Lance sighed.

“Do you think Keith won’t like it?” Hunk asked as he washed his hands to start working.

“Oh, no, I’m sure he’ll love it. I mean, I hope he does.” Lance nodded with a hopeful smile that made Hunk roll his eyes again.

Lance really hoped Keith would like that cake.

Lance really hoped Keith would like h… _better not overthink this_ , he thought, and helped Hunk as he put the cake together.

  
**Second layer**

 

Keith went back to the café a couple days later.

He was still adjusting to his new old home, and everything in town seemed so different and he was feeling a bit… off again, like he didn’t belong there. It had been the same two years ago, when he left the Garrison mid semester to never return. Still, things were different now.

He sat down and Lance approached him with a smile,

“Good afternoon!” he said, “Let me get you your cake, my man!”

“Oh, actually… I was thinking about looking at the menu this time.” Keith answered with a shy smile, “Maybe it’s time to change a bit.”

“What?” Lance squealed and Keith blinked, confused at that reaction, “Why? Don’t you love red velvet?”

“Yeah, I just thought… that it wouldn’t hurt to try something different?” Keith said, eyebrows raised.

“Okay, well, you can try a different coffee, but how about you give the cake another shot?” Lance tried, and Keith was confused about it.

“Uh…” he said, and then Lance sighed and explained as he took a cake and put it on the counter. It was a very pretty red velvet cake,

“You know, you should really try this one. It’s a new… old? Recipe. I think you’re going to like it. It has buttercream in it and everything.”

“Really?” Keith asked, “I thought you said you don’t use buttercream anymore?”

“We don’t. So… I made this one myself. I’m calling it _blue_ velvet.” Lance confessed and both his and Keith’s cheeks became pink.

Keith had so many questions.

“It’s… it’s red, though?” he ended up saying.

“Yeah… but my color is blue, and since I made it… blue velvet.” Lance said.

“Oh… but… but why did you… did you make this?” Keith asked then.

“Well… I don’t like to see my regulars down.” Lance confessed with a small smile as he cut a slice of the cake, “You know… I was kinda worried when you just disappeared one day. It took me ages to find out you had left and not died or something. So I was glad when I saw you come back. I really don’t know your reasons, and you have no obligation to tell me, but when I saw you liked the old cake better I just… you know? If buttercream will make you happy, there you go!” Lance smiled and handed him the slice of cake.

Keith was so taken aback with that.

That is… he barely knew Lance. He’ve had a crush on him since always, yeah, but… they barely knew each other. Keith stared at him for a bit, pinky cheeks and a confused expression.

Then he smiled.

“Thank you, Lance. It’s… it’s very cool of you.” Keith said with a nod. He then took a forkful of his cake and smiled at the taste. It was… very close to what he remembered. Not as good as the cake he had had a few days earlier, but definitely good. It brought back memories and that feeling that things could - would get better eventually, that nothing was as hard as it seemed.

His smile widened with that.

“This is so good.” he said, “Thank you, Lance.”

Lance smiled, too.

“No problem, man! I’m glad you liked it. You know… I can’t sell it, so… You can take the whole thing home if you want.” he informed, but Keith shook his head.

He had wanted to taste that cake again to have back an old feeling, but he was realizing that the cake was different from what he remembered, after all, in the sense that… well, the taste was the same, but the person who had made it was Lance.

And, yes, it felt good to have that old feeling again, but circumstances had changed. The feeling had been wrong back then - things hadn’t ended up alright; he dropped out of school and travelled around as he tried to understand himself, and that was very different from what he and his parents had wanted.

And really, as much as he had liked that couple years of freedom and discovery, he didn’t want more of them. He wanted to… settle down in his life, to move on with it. So the feeling might be old, but it meant something new now. At least, Keith wanted it to. He didn’t want to have things exactly like he had before, he wanted… something new.

“Actually… can I keep the cake here? I can come back everyday to have another slice.” Keith suggested.

“Alright by me.” Lance nodded.

“And maybe… we could eat together?” Keith suggested awkwardly, looking at his cake.

“Uh, no, thanks, I mean, dude, I hate buttercream.” Lance shook his head.

“Oh… well, I meant… like… you don’t need to eat the same as me? I meant like… we eat stuff together… and talk?” Keith explained.

“Oh?”

“He means like a date, dumbass.” the waiter, who was passing nearby, said.

Keith blushed.

“Pidge, that’s…!” Lance started, but Keith shook his head,

“No, it’s… it’s like he…”

“She”

“It’s like she said…”

“See?” Pidge said, shrugged and left.

“Oh…” Lance gulped. Keith was getting ready to apologize and maybe leave when Lance smiled brightly and nodded, “Yeah, okay. I’d like that. Good that you asked!”

Keith smiled too, eating more of his cake, deciding he was glad he had came back. He still had a lot of things to work out, but… right at that moment he was feeling alright. A bit awkward, but mostly alright.

And something inside him, maybe the butterfly in his stomach, was telling him that the feeling would stay.

**Author's Note:**

> this ending is so silly im so sorry dfghj  
> i was gonna name the fic "blue velvet", but there's a movie with the same name, so i went with red velvet anyway, ops. thanks for reading!


End file.
